Monday, 31 December 2012

Hi,
I love a New Year, as it is a fresh start, and the most perfect way to make resolutions that you would love to keep, but probably won't! However, with 2012 on its way out, and my creativity sorely on the wane, I decided to help myself on my way by making a mojo kicker jar!
Take 24 lolly sticks, colour them with distress inks, add a mojo kicker.. I used some of Tim Holtz's Chitchat stickers, and some other ones from my stash, and stuck them on the coloured sticks. Add them to a decorated glass jar, and pick 2 a month to kickstart the creative juices. I have done enough for a whole year!

Will it help... I hope so, as I will be starting a challenge next month ( resolutions are always done the following month, aren't they?!) on my own personal blogwith a link here too, so watch this space!

I am looking forward to 2013, and here at The Artistic Stamper we have lots of surprises up our sleeves, as it is a year to celebrate, as I will have been in this crafty business for 20 years, and cannot wait to see what 2013 brings!

Wishing all of you a Happy, Prosperous and Creative New Year
Hugs
Jennie

Friday, 28 December 2012

...hello everyone, it's Mel here with my final piece as Guest Designer for the Artistic Stamper, it has been wonderful to be part of such an amazing team of super creative people, thank you so much Jennie and Emma for inviting to play along with you guys for the month of December...

...well I don't know about you but time has flown so fast this month and with the New Year fast approaching, it's time to reflect on what is important in life...

Wednesday, 26 December 2012

Hello everyone and HAPPY BOXINGDAY!!!!
Well I hope that you have survived the festivities and Santa has been good to you!

The moment Christmas is over I always start to think "Calendars", large, small, to give away or on the wall. Whatever, I decided to share a 12 x 12 Wall Calendar for 2013 with you and hopefully you will feel inspired to make one of your own.

I downloaded a 2013 calendar from the internet, printed it on light card and inked around it with some vintage photo. Next I made the top panel by cutting a piece of smooth white card to the size I wanted and then blended Mustard Seed and Wild Honey Distress Ink over it. Then I stamped the Calligraphic Mat 12 in Mustard Seed all over it and then over-stamped the Watch Background and Winged Wheel in several places with Wild Honey. Finally I stamped one of the keys from the Time and Keys set in two corners with Aged Mahogany.

For the vocal image I stamped the Girl With Clock in Archival Black ink, cut it out and coloured with Wild Honey and Aged Mahogany as shown. I mounted it onto the background with foam tape. The 2013 bit was computer generated and then matted on some scrapbook card from my stash.

I embellished with a chipboard swirl which I sprayed with Perfect Pearls mists and then I added some little roses from my stash.

Finally I matted it all first on some scrapbook paper, some beige card and finally a piece of 12 x 12 corrugated card which I inked with vintage photo.

That's it, hope you like it and I wish you all the most wonderful New Years celebrations and all the very best for 2013!!

Monday, 24 December 2012

Hi everyone, it's Emma here and I'm sharing my final post of this year and I just wanted to wish you all a very happy Christmas with this special card...

To begin with, I used an 8" square card blank and then covered the front, with a piece of pale blue card, leaving a border of the white card base showing all around. I then matted a piece of the patterned paper from Tim's Seasonal Paper Stash over the top. I added a piece of seam binding across the front of the card and attached a bow to the strip of ribbon, together with some paper string, also tied into a bow.

Next, I stamped the image of the snowman onto a piece of white card and painted it using a combination of Distress Markers and Distress Inks, which I'd applied to my craft matt and then lightly misted with water to give a watercolour paint. I then blended the edges of the card with Old Paper DI. I added a piece of the Frosted Film over the top and matted the completed image onto a further piece of the pale blue card and attached it, next to my bow on the front of my covered card base.

I used a piece of chipboard to die cut the word "Snow" using the WordPlay die and then added Glossy Accents over the top before covering each letter with the Crushed Glass Glitter. Once the letters are dry, I added these to my card.

I then used some of the papers in the pad, to die cut various sized Snowflake Rosettes and gave each of the rosettes a good coating of Rock Candy Cracklepaint. Once the paint was completely dry, I attached the completed rosettes onto my card front, adding small cabouchon pearls to three of the snowflakes and then Chit Chat stickers onto the fourth.

Saturday, 22 December 2012

Salut les patouilleuses !
This is my very last post for 2012, and I am taking the opportunity to thank Jennie for the confidence she made on me, my "roommates" for their constant support, and all of you for all the nice comments you have ever left on my posts ! This half year spent with you made me constantly trying to go over my habits and my comfort zone, always looking for new challenges to show you the best I was able to make. So, for all of this, a big THANK YOU !
The creation I am showing you today is a gift I sent to my friend Miryl who won my draw with the Patouille et Récup forum. I have made it with recycled stuff, and stamps from the Artistic Stamper, of course !

An old paintbrush fully covered with gesso, alcohol inks, a calligraphy stamp, old lace, buttons, an empty tube of paint... and, of course, my fave of the moment : a tea bag stamped with a Gibson girl.

Do you like it ?

Wishing you a very merry Christmas and looking forward to talking to you next year !!

I stamped the little girl image from Victorian Christmas 1 on my tag, then on the leftover piece of my manila tag, I stamped the image again. I cut out the little girl & fireplace, then used the Dylusion Inks & a waterbrush to watercolour, before attaching it over the top of the image on the tag.

I coloured some white ribbon with the crushed grape Dylusion ink, tied it to the tag, added a couple of silver charms, then matted the tag on a kraft card to finish.

I'd like to thank everyone for the wonderful support & comments I have received over the year.

Friday, 14 December 2012

...hello everyone, it's Mel here, I'm back again to share with you my second piece as Guest Designer for the month of December, this time I'm using the delightful Calligraphic Mat # 12, a very versatile stamp that will become a firm favourite of mine...

...I covered a sheet of plain white paper with random blending's of salty ocean & bundled sage distress inks, then with timber brown StazOn the Calligraphic Mat was inked up and again the entire sheet was stamped...when heat set the sheet was roughly torn into strips...

...the bottom edges of each strip were given a smattering of shabby white frantage, love this amazing stuff, then adhered to an acetate cone...

...well there you have a shabby chic paper tree, very quick and simple to make with this wonderfully versatile stamp...hope you like, I'll be back later in the month with my final piece...thank you so much for dropping by today...

Thursday, 13 December 2012

Hello everyone
Welcome and good to see you here!. Hope you are all well ahead with your Christmas preparations! Can you believe it is now less than 2 weeks away (scary.....)
I love making gifts and have a friend who is an avid reader, so what better gift than a homemade book mark? To make it look a bit more special, I created a book-shaped holder to tug the bookmark into.

These were the stamps and other products I used:Stamps: Traveling WordsChristmas plate 3Mini ChristmasCalligraphic Mat 12Other products:
Ideaology Kraft Resist SeasonalClaudine Helmuth Multi Medium MatteRanger Distress Stains in Pewter, Bundled Sage and Picket FenceDistress Inks in Bundled Sage, Brushed Corduroy, Peacock Feather, Festive BerriesAdirondac Color Wash CranberryArchival Ink in Jet Black and CobaltFrom My Stash:
Various dies, Treasure Gold, corner rounder punch, smooth stamping card, foam tape, gold embossing powder, small piece of scrapbook paper, crinkled seam binding, script embossing folder, various small embellishments.
1. I started by cutting a piece of the Kraft Resist Seasonal paper to & 3/4 by 7 1/2 inches and scored and then folded along the long side at 3 3/4 and 4". I rounded the corners, inked around the edges with Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink and then Treasure Gold White Fire, to give it an aged antique look. This is the cover of the booklet.

2. I cut a piece of smooth white card to the same size and scored in exactly the same way. I spread the distress stains on my craft mat, swiped my card through it several times, spritzt it with water and dried it with my heat gun. I then inked it further with my chosen Distress Inks until I was happy with the result. Next I gold embossed the Calligraphic Mat stamp all over it and inked around the edges, and finally glued it onto the cover using Multi Matte Medium

3. To embellish the outside I stamped the Santa stamp from the Christmas Plate twice with Jet Black Archival ink, coloured with Distress inks and die cut and layered as shown in the picture. I fastened a piece of seam binding, died with Cranberry Color Wash underneath my ornament first.I then mounted it onto the cover with foam tape. Those of you who are observant will see that the die cut is a Spellbinders die and the great news is that in the new year the Artistic Stamper will start to stock Spellbinder dies, so keep your eyes peeled!!

4. The inside was done in a similar way, creating a pocket with one of the die-cuts that I ran through an embossing folder first.

Here you can see some more detail:

5. For the bookmark I cut a a piece of strong card to 2 by 6" and covered it on two sides with scrapbook paper. I stamped one of the stamps of the Traveling Words set in Jet Black archival ink, cut, inked and mounted it as shown and finished it with some ribbon and small embellishments.

Here you can see the bookmark inside its pocket:

Here finally you can see the back of the booklet, again I first cut a bit of seam binding and then glued a small die cut ornament over it

Well |I hope you enjoyed this little project and feel inspired to make some of your own last minute gifts still.
I wish you all the most wonderful, peaceful and happy Christmas. I will be back on Boxing Day with another project.
Until then, stay happy and crafty!

Tuesday, 11 December 2012

Hi everyone, Emma here! Today, I'm sharing a very special Christmas card that I made and as always, I hope you like it...

To begin with I covered the front of my card with a piece of the paper from the Holidays Past Paper Stash, matted over a piece of red card. I aged the edges of the paper, to give a vintage look to the card. I stamped the image of Santa and coloured him using Distress Marker pens. I added a piece of the Frosted Film over the top of the image before putting it behind my die cut frame, which I'd stamped with the Marble Background stamp and then blended the cream cardstock with Old Paper and Frayed Burlap DI. I then matted the completed artwork onto a piece of green card.

Next, I die cut all my pieces to make up the Tattered Poinsettia, the Holly leaves and the Tattered Pinecone branches. I blended the Poinsettia petals with Victorian Velvet Distress Ink and the leaves, etc with Peeled Paint and Shabby Shutters. I then added some Rock Candy Crackle Paint over the top of all the pieces. Once they were dry I assembled the Poinsettia and added a pearl to the centre of the bloom.

Next, I arranged and attached my artwork, Tattered Poinsettia and all the die cut leaves to the front of my card.

I threaded some Seam Binding from my stash, which I aged using different neutral shades of DI, through one of the Idea-ology Hinge Clips and attached one of the Locket Keys and some twine onto it.

I finally stamped the "A Joyful Christmas" message onto a piece of Manila Cardstock and carefully cut it out before attaching it to the front of my card.

So, if you still haven't made that really special Christmas card...I hope I've given you a little bit of inspiration with this project and HERE'S THE LIST OF WHAT I USED TO MAKE THIS CARD:

I used red line tape to stick the end of some white & silver ribbon to the front of the holder, wrapped the ribbon around, the secured the other end with more tape. I glued the Joyful frame on top of the ribbon joins, then used two small screws to secure it to the holder.

I finished off by sticking clear gems to the centres of the snowflakes.

Saturday, 8 December 2012

Salut les patouilleuses !This is a mini-album I have made during a mixed-media/cooking/photo/LOL workshop among the vineyards.When I came back home, I was done with the structure and backgrounds, and I just had to add the various pictures and stamp prints here and there...Here is the front page I glued a real vine leaf on :

and the 1st page with the participants picture (and the "seize the moment" and "photograph" stamps)

I used a column top stamp as well...

and since the "architecture stamps" box was open... the statue found its place here :

This is just an overview of this album, there are many other pages with pictures of nature I took during this workshop, would you be interested in viewing them, just pop up to my blog @ http://titbelsoeur.blogspot.fr/

Thursday, 6 December 2012

I couple of simple cards and tags made for christmas. I used a mask of torn paper for the cards and inked up the visible area in a graduated colour tone. you can use any kind of ink.paint or chalk you like for this (maybe distress inks and a blending tool).

Once the strip of colour had been inked and it had dried, I simply stamped over with black ink using some christmas stamps.